Lily Evans and the Prison of Love
by TATs
Summary: {Ch 3 updated} Lily and James live in the same neighborhood in Eaton Drove, but when Lily enters James' world, he doesn't accept her right away. But that won't put down her spirit, just her lovelife... :) (L pov, 1st to 7th, LJ)
1. Welcome to Eaton Drove

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Disclaimer  
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Everything that JK Rowling wrote, belongs to her, everything I added belongs to my imagination. Eaton Drove is a real place in England, so is Sedgeford, Heacham, Snettisham and Kings Lynn. And there is a Heacham River and it is just a few miles away from Eaton Drove, there are really two Eaton Droves, but the one I'm setting this fan fic in is off Sedgeford Road, right next to Sedgeford and Heacham River. I have no clue if there is a Waterhouse Bookstore in Heacham, but it would appear from all the information that I have gathered that Waterhouse is UK's Barnes & Noble for US. Living in US, I have limited information of England and blame the World Wide Web for any mistakes.

This goes for all chapters in this fan fic.

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Author's Note  
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This starts when Lily is eleven, but I'm going to leap though quickly to seventh year by chapters and I'm relying on you guys to understand that Lily and James weren't all over each other the moment they saw each other and that you read the FIfth book and Snape's Worst Memory in particular. Don't argue with me when I saw James was a chaser, he was, the movies are evil and have no clue what they are talking about, JK Rowling however does and since she writes Harry Potter I'm gonna follow her and say James was a Chaser. The movies are a little off because you have to break down the books and build foreshadowing and stuff like that. The Marauders learned that Remus was a werewolf in their third year and they became animagi in their fifth as far as all the reliable sources report.

Note, I'm typing this story in a pathetic WordPad until I install Word, so do allow for my horrible spelling and don't yell at me for it, but do tell me that I misspelled a bazillion words here. English is my second language, but I won't claim that I can spell in Russian, because if you see how I spell in English, my Russian spelling is a _lot_ worse. But then Russian has like 36 letters instead of just 27, so I guess, I'm not that terrible.

Love, TATs

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The Story  
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Love stories are always popular, but there's one everyone likes to tell over and over again in their own words with details from their own minds. I wrote it and rewrote it five times already. And I'm not the only one. This is story is of course of Lily Evans and James Potter. Story which we only know parts and bits of from the hints JK Rowling left us. We, fan fiction writers, treasure those hints like expensive gems and luxury goods. So today, you eager readers and fans of this a little cliché love story, I will tell you another version of how it all came to be.

Chapter 1. Moving In.

It was the middle of summer and peak of hot August days, the days when the weather stayed at most seemingly stable and the rain stayed away. Pretty soon though, the third week of August would begin and this sort of uncomfortably hot but comfortably insistent on frying the neighborhood's grass weather would be lifted. Instead, an unpredictable wind and the stormy clouds would populate the sky while the yards would become full of muddy water that in turn will attempt to drown the same grass, which would insist to survive even this sort of cycle year after year after year.

The grass in this small English town's neighborhood is much like the people that walk on it. This grass rubs its characteristics into these people starting at an early age during which they all play games on it in company of pets and friends and family. So stubborn and unyielding are guaranteed characteristics in any of the residents of Eaton Drove, Sedgeford, in some more then others of course.

One of those exceptions was the Evans family, the Evans had moved to Eaton Drove to raise their family of two girls. Mrs. Evans was far from stubborn, she was quite lenient to everything that had some sort of reason behind it. Mr. Evans a gentle man who could never learn to resist anything his wife suggested and his daughters asked for, other then moving. The two adults mutually agreed that Eaton was a great place for a family, the location was natural and isolated from any modern clubs and such dangerous places for young girls, there could be no fooling around with unknown boys because everyone knew everyone in Eaton and the closest thing to a city was Sedgeford which consisted of a few small conservative entertainment places such as a movie theater and a grocery store. Near Sedgeford were two small cities Heacham, for which the river only a mile straight North from Eaton Drove was named for, and Snettisham. Mr. Evans worked as a manager of Waterstones bookstore in Heacham, just a small branch really, and Mrs. Evans worked only on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday as an English Literature home school teacher in Snettisham. The arrangement worked very well for everyone and when the girls started muggle school, they also started their dance and music lessons.

Very soon the girls interests took different paths. The older sister Petunia, continued on her ballet lessons and took a headstrong interest in piano, becoming the top of her class and setting sight on the private boarding school for outstanding and talented children in Kings Lynn, a large city only a few hours away from Eaton. The younger sister, Lily didn't hang back from her sister and entered school the same year with her so the girls would be in the same grade and even strived for best grades to be able to join Petunia in the boarding school. But she didn't continue her ballet lessons or take up piano, Lily went ahead to limited her dancing lessons to a one day a week of general dance, instead took up karate and Italian style fencing. The girls went on locked step in step with each other and were as tight together then Siamese twins.

Petunia was only a year older then her sister, and her younger sister Lily did sometimes seem a tag-along to her friends, but Petunia never rejected her sister anything. After all, Lily was harmless. They never looked like sisters to a casual eye, Petunia was a tall skinny ballerina with short cropped wavy dark brown hair and Lily was shorter by half a head and hidden under a mass of red frizz. Petunia was outgoing and not afraid to speak her mind, Lily was always next to her sister and seemingly harmless unless she had a foil in her hand. But if you looked a little closer, you would see that Petunia never failed to give a helping hand to her sis, even to cheat a little to help her pull up her grades so she'd be in same boarding school with her. There was more to these two then green eyes, there were bonds as strong as that grass' resolve to stay alive, as strong as love.

The bonds held firm until one summer day they began to melt in the smoldering sun. On this day, the tale begins.

It was a Tuesday and the sun was hanging a little lower then one o'clock and the girls and their mother were sitting out on the porch reading a fashion magazine to pick out new clothing for the coming up school year when a few cars pulled up to the "ON SALE" house across the street just two houses over. They were clean cars and the people that stepped out of them were all dressed in business suits except for one woman and a boy who was being nearly dragged around by that woman. The woman was wearing something that reminded Lily very much of a bath robe only it was longer and much more... casual? A casual wear robe? Something like that. One of the men was wearing a lime green retro suit, but despite such ridiculous attire everyone else listened very hard to his directions. Except for one other man, everyone else seemed to be there to follow orders. This man was wearing a stylish suit jacket with untied tie over a t-shirt tucked in at odd angles into a pair of very worn jeans with an unmatching navy belt.

Aside from the ridiculously dressed man and the woman in the 'robe', the only other interesting person of the group was the boy. He was wearing very normal clothing that seemed to be just a half-size too big for him, but that was probably because of his unusual height, he was a little too tall for eleven and a little too short for twelve. From his belt hanged what appeared to be an eleven inch wooden stick. _Boys_, Lily thought biting back a smile. The wind messed with his hair, but it was quite impossible to mess it up any more, it was a few months behind on getting a hair cut but even being properly cut wouldn't have helped the unruliness of its nature. The boy himself acted a lot like his hair, unruly. Despite the regularly occurring hit from the woman who appeared to be his mother, he kept pulling and tagging her in different directions, asking her random questions that she answered with nothing more then a shake of her head. It appeared that he was going though all this trouble to be released, but he was no where near successful at his task, the mother just kept on talking to Mr. Ridiculous.

Mr. Ridiculous was talking to the man with the odd clothing and the woman in the robe, standing at safe distance from the boy. The woman was asking him questions, while the man just kept on listening and observing the sign. Finally after a what seemed to be an hour, during which Mrs. Evans and Petunia left into the house, leaving Lily to observe the newcomers, the men in suits got back into their cars and left taking the "ON SALE" sign with them and leaving Mr. Ridiculous and Lily's new neighbors to go inside the house. The boy was finally released after his father spoke to him and left on the porch while every one else went inside.

First he walked up and down the porch, measuring it in steps, then he walked up and down the steps, stopped and climbed up on the railing and pointed his stick at random bushes, then he carefully returned the stick to his belt and started observing the houses... and finally spotted Lily.

Lily had been leaning on her porch and watching the boy, he was quite amusing if you had nothing better to do. But now that he noticed her, he took out his stick and pointed it in her direction playfully, in that same moment a serious brooking no nonsense call sounded from the house, "James Harry Potter!" The boy fell over the railing in his hasty attempt to return his stick to its place and fell into one of the bushes. The door opened and Mr. Ridiculous and the other man came out, the more or less normally dressed man had lost his jacked and tie inside the house and now appeared almost normal except there was something about him that wasn't quite ordinary. He looked up and down the porch, then shook his head in a gentle but tired manner, then spoke to Mr. Ridiculous, they shook hands and the weird man left in his car. At that point James had returned to the porch and followed his dad in the house, he seemed to have trouble walking, as if he had just been punished severely by a belt and not just fallen into a bush.


	2. Muggle Mug and the Sledgeford Canyon

Author's Note

I'm answering one of the reviews, I do this rarely if ever. Well, the reason I began to believe that the Marauders figured out Remus was a werewolf in third was because he said it took them three years to figure out the animagi spell and they finally figured it out in their 5th. that means 5 minus 3, and although in every other person's mind such simple arithmetic can be done on fingers, I figured that the answer was 3, not two. Don't ask, I don't know how I'm taking Calculus right now and passing it, oh, yes, I have a calculator. I'm better with multiplying!

Yes, I'm aware that here I'm lingering on all this happening when they are still eleven, but the thing is so adorable! And don't even THINK that I have ANY AT ALL RemusLily things in mind, its all JamesLily from the beginning to the end. They are just good friends and I needed someone to act as a buffer and a link to each other, it was a choice between Remie and Peter! Remie's nicer and more reliable. And I love him. Yeah, back to the story at hand.

It's really a wonder how I still manage to have an A in Calculus, considering I've been writing this thing the whole time. Damn the school for not allowing laptops!

This is year 1971 by the way, that's acurate, I looked it up in the Lexicon!

Chapter 2. Muggle Mug.

Birthdays in the Evans family began early in the morning at breakfast and ended late at night with fireworks on the Heacham River bank. Aside from knowing all of Petunia's friends, Lily had one friend of her own, Remus Lupin. He was a little odd at times and had sick peaks once every month. Remus hadn't always been ill, but Lily wouldn't remember that his mysterious diagnosis began at about age seven and they only met in muggle school just a few weeks before that.

The Evans met the Lupins when they moved to Eaton, they had been in close contact despite that the Lupins lived in the middle of nowhere on side of Sedgeford Road deep inside a forest.

Petunia always thought that Remus was a little odd, he was a very skinny and pale boy and even during hot summer weeks he didn't get as much of a tan as all the other kids. He was taller then most boys his age, but his otherwise physical characteristics seemed faded. His light brown hair should have been filled with gold streaks and his light brown eyes displayed hints of once ago honey tones. His lips were always pale and when he smiled, he never lost his aura of sadness. Remus always acted more mature then his age, suggesting a hard turn in his earlier childhood that touched his heart and soul.

When Lily woke up in the morning, the cooking had already began and Remus was already helping. She grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt and jumped into the shower, ten minutes later Lily arrived dressed and hair tied downstairs in the kitchen. And Petunia and Remus were forcing her to stay away from helping in the cooking.

"Lily, honestly, if you're gonna keep refusing to cooperate by not being lazy like you're suppose to be on your _birthday_, I'll tie you to that chair," her older sister told her. And she wasn't kidding. Been done before.

Remus was not helping, he produced a suitable belt for the job. For the first time in the last month, she really saw her friend, color had returned to him. Remus' skin was not sick yellow, but could pass for a healthy tan and his brown eyes and hair had gained some warm yellow and honey tones. And his lips that really smiled, showing a proper set of teeth that was a real smile, were reddish and not faded pink. Another new addition to this new Remus was a... Lily tilted her head to a side and frowned at him, "Remus, why are you wearing a bath robe?"

Everyone blinked at her question, then blinked at Remus' robe. The boy suddenly realized that he was wearing the robe and his hands on impulse went to an oddly shaped fold and then in his pocket where a white piece of paper was sticking out just a little. Remus smiled as if reassured about something, but it was all unconscious, he was really trying to make up a suitable lie to cover up his odd choice of clothing. "It's a society thing, something my family belongs to... and I do... now, too," for a moment there he seemed in another world, then he reemerged again to the real life.

"Do you know the Potters?" Lily asked curiously. But her mom and sister returned to the working and resumed their previous conversation some time ago. After all, the things that kids wear these days anyway.

"Uh, well, I know about them, pretty well-known family. But I've really only talked to Mrs. Potter just one time. They have a son, he's our age. And Mr. Potter is a ministry employer and Mrs. Potter use to be an aur- ahem - artist," Remus said and looked innocently at her. Lily didn't buy it for a second, Remus just didn't stumble over his words like that. She made a mental note to question him more thoroughly as soon as she got the chance to do so. And chance was on her side that day.

Mr. Evans came down into the kitchen, carrying a newspaper and greeted everyone before sitting down like it was just another day. He was one of those fathers that liked to pretend to forget his kids' birthdays, as if any man ever forgot _that_ day and the nightmares that keep on their haunt. And how did he manage to ignore the birthday cake being made right in front of him was beyond Lily, but that was her dad there.

She giggled a little at his act, but kept on sipping her milk like it was any other day but her birthday.

Finally, Mr. Evans finished reading his headlines and 'suddenly' noticed the presence of the two eleven year olds at the table on either side of him. "Get out of here, you little troublemakers, let an old man have some peace and quite in here! Out with you!" He said in his mock-grumpy old man voice and they ran for the front door.

Lily got there first and she thought that Remus was hanging back a little on purpose. As if hoping that she had forgotten his mentioning of Mrs. Potter being an 'artist'. She looked around the empty street and located the Potters house. In their yard, Mrs. Potter was working in the flowerbeds and wearing another one of her odd robes. The flowers in her garden just seemed to return to life just because she looked at them.

"So, what kind of _artist_, is she?" The emphasis on that one word was meant to remind Remus about his slip up, and Lily was going to find out what he first wanted to say today. Soon.

Remus seemed to be trying to find a logical thing to say but all that came out was, "Um."

Lily grinned peevishly, "I guess we'll just have to go and ask her!" And before Remus could catch her arm and stop her, Lily was down on the road and heading straight for the Potters house, leaving her friend no choice but to join her. She stopped on the road next to one of the flowerbeds to watch Mrs. Potter work and not disturb her because she seemed to be very into what she was doing. And when the woman finally finished with her flower, Lily yelled, "Good morning, Mrs. Potter!"

The woman looked up at Lily, just a little startled that someone was awake this early in the morning and was wondering around saying hellos to neighbors. Of course, when she saw that it was Lily and Remus, she understood why. Kids. "Well, good morning, Miss Evans. And, young Master Lupin there are those your new school robes? Very nice, I bet you can't wait to be off to Hogwarts."

Remus was wearing a _very_ startled expression when her heard Mrs. Potter's words, he was acting like he was having a nightmare and it was getting worse and worse with every word that came out of Mrs. Potter's mouth. "Uh, yes-s, m'am. Just got them - erm - last weekend."

"You didn't go with your dad, did you?"

"Erm, well, he had to buy some things for work, so he just dropped me off at the entrance," Lily felt like Remus was choosing his words very carefully while Mrs. Potter was just making a casual conversation like they were all old friends.

"Oh, yes! I bumped into him just then in the Knockturn Alley, dirty place that is, someone needs to clean it up a little. I always wanted to take a team of Aurors down there and search every filthy rag those up-to-no-goods wear. Never quite got around to doing it while I was with the ministry. I think, I might apply to train some new releases for the job now that James is starting Hogwarts and I'll have nothing better to do."

Lily grinned, "I don't think you want to let go of that one, he sounds like a trouble maker my dad always calls me."

Remus stared at her like she grew extra ears, but Mrs. Potter just laughed and said, "You better stay away from that one, Merlin knows what he'll end up as. You two come on in, Remus looks like he needs some cookies and milk."

Lily followed her without hesitation, but she stopped near one of the flowerbeds and picked up an oddly smooth wooden rod, she shrugged and figured it was the one James was pointing at her the day the Potters just moved in. She tucked it in her back pocket, the one with a hole to put it though, meaning to give it back to him inside. And heard Remus swallow rather loudly behind her.

She turned to him and explained, "I think it's James' toy, he was running around with it earlier."

Lily heard Remus mutter under his breath, "Running _around_?! Idiot! The first thing I'm doing at Hogwarts is showing him what a good hex feels like." Lily just frowned to herself, he probably didn't mean for her to hear that. This was becoming a rather odd day.

From the outside, the Potters house looked like an ordinary small English home, inside however the rooms could have belonged to a small castle's rather then a house's.

"In here!" Mrs. Potter called from the first door on their right, they followed the call and found themselves in a gigantic kitchen where Mrs. Potter was putting a large plate of cookies on the table. "Come on, sit, a cookie to a kid works as good as any cheering charm."

At that moment another woman's voice sounded from the hallway, Remus' sour expression became very still, he wasn't at all happy with the way all the events were going.

Mrs. Potter put a bottle of milk on the table and two glasses, "Kids, I'll be right there, pour yourself some milk and dig in. I think that's your mother, Remus, she wanted my pie recipe earlier today."

Lily shrugged at Remus and started pouring the milk when James showed up. Lily greeted him and he greeted her back, giving his own stick a strange look and then returning Remus' wave.

He got another glass out and added his to the table and then started babbling something really ridiculous, "So, why don't you wear robes, too, Lily Evans right? Mum knows everyone on the street here, it's so small compared to London. When did you get your letter? I got mine five months ago, but mom refused to take me to Diagonal Alley until the end of July. I think she was afraid I try to teach myself mag-"

And then his face became very white because Remus emptied his glass of milk in it. James stared at him for a second, then his face grew angry, but before he could speak, Remus did.

"Muggle!"

Both James and Lily stared at him like he had completely lost his bearings, "Muggle?" They asked.

"Muggle!" Remus repeated disparately.

Lily frowned at him, but understanding dawned on his face, "Muggle."

James was staring from Remus to Lily to the stick in her jeans.

"Muggle," Remus said with a sigh.

Lily looked at them and stepped back a little, wondering if this was contagious. "Muggle?"

James and Remus stared at each other helpless, until James started speaking, "Mug-?"

Remus nodded violently at him, "Yeah! Muggle Mug!"

James grinned, "Oh! Mug of Muggle!"

"Muggle the Mug!" Remus answered.

Lily stared at them and wondered if she should call a doctor or Mrs. Potter at least.

Remus turned to Lily, "Muggle Mug! The birthday mug! Everyone drinks from it when they turn eleven in our - erm - club! You have to, too!" Then to James, "Get it!"

James frowned at Remus, but then jumped up and began racing though the cabinets until he found a gigantic clay mug and took it to the table. Without hesitation, he emptied the cookies and the poured in all the milk and swirled the mug to mix them. Then he slid it down toward Lily and said, "Drink."

Lily looked from James to the mug to Remus to James, "You're mad," to Remus, "both of you," to the mug, "_really_ mad."

"What have you people all done with my cookies?" Mrs. Potter asked from the doorway horrified and staring at the mug, "And where in the world did you find that beer mug?"

"Beer mug?" Lily said quietly and raised her eyebrows at the boys.

James spoke first, "It's the _Muggle_ Mug."

Mrs. Potter shook her head laughing lightly, "Oh, no it's _not_, and definitely not the cookie soaking mug. And you Mr. James Harry Potter will be drinking all of that if you do that again. Now, outside with you, and take a cookie along. Ones that are still floating."

The boys ran out at the chance to have an excuse to do so, but Lily stayed back a little. "Oh, Mrs. Potter, James must have dropped this in the bushes or something," and she handed the mother the stick from her back pocket before running after the boys.

"Erm, so, Lily, want to walk to the river?" James asked, "I haven't been there yet."

Lily gave him a strange look, "Nothing like your Muggle Mug, right?"

"Just the river," Remus assured her.

"Okay, I'll tell mom where I am and we can go," Lily ran up to her house and nearly ran into Petunia, who was staring at a antique looking letter with a green wax seal in form of the big letter H on the back, she quickly put it to the bottom of the pile in her hands when Lily showed up though. But Lily didn't take notice, probably just reading the mail.

"Hey, Pet, we were gonna go to the river, tell mom, okay?"

"With your suitors? Well, all right, just remember to get back by noon, dad's coming back from the store and we'll be leaving for King's Lynn, okay?"

"Done deal, bye."

"Don't break anything!" Petunia called after her younger sister, who was already running back to the boys.

They were all walking down Sedgeford Road when Lily decided to change the topic from chess to something more interesting.

"So, do you have one, too?" Lily asked Remus.

"Have what?" Remus frowned at her.

"Stick thing?"

"What stick thing?"

"The one like the one James has, you know the one I found in the bush in the yard?"

James stopped in his steps and stared at her like she's turned into a giant bird, "You found my wand in the yard?! Where?"

Lily frowned, "So it's a wand? What kind of society do you people belong to that has wands?"

"Wizarding," James mumbled before he could stop himself because he was too busy looking for his wand.

Lily and Remus just stared at him, for different reasons until James finally found his wand.

"So whose wand was that wand?" Lily inquired.

"His mom's, she was gardening with it," Remus said with a sigh, he now acquired the nothing more can possibly go wrong attitude.

Lily tugged at his sleeve, "Can I see your wand?"

Remus looked at her like she asked for all his money, "Are you crazy?"

"I'm not the one babbling on about wizarding societies and wands and such. And what the hell is an Auror?" She gave him a determined look and Remus surrendered his precious wand very reluctantly. As if directed by some higher being, Lily swung the wand in a large arch and pointed it in the middle of the road.

Both boys goggled at the end result as Remus was still saying "Lily, no!" Because a large and deep... hole appeared in where the Sedgeford road use to be. Accompanied by a loud bang as air rushed in to fill the space where earth use to be, the suddenly generated wind hit the three from behind, smashing them into the ground before which they stood. And then everything was still again.

James addressed Remus, "You said she was a muggle!"

Remus glared at James, "I guess it's a little late to take those words back?"

Lily just stood very still, mesmerized. A few minutes later a Ministry Magical Law Enforcement official literally _pop_ed in and joined the three kids in their goggling at the hole.

Then the man shook himself and started asking them questions. After getting everyones' names and addresses, he turned to Lily and spoke with a note of bewilderment in his tone. "Miss Evans, now, how are you going to explain a small round canyon in the middle of Sedgeford Road here?"

LIly blinked at him, "Magic?"

"All right," the official said nodding, "we'll have to contact your parents then, muggles - er - non-magical folk, right?" Lily nodded. "And it was your wand Mr. Lupin?"

Remus nodded with a sour expression, "I didn't really think she'd make a new landmark in England when I gave it to her, sir. Just - erm - well, she's a - was - a muggle, kind of."

"Well, at least there aren't any more muggles around," James shrugged.

The official nodded and turned back to Lily, "Welcome to Hogwarts, I guess."

"Uh-huh," Lily mumbled and gave her creation another long sideways glance.

"Well, then, I'd better inform someone about this - erm - landmark," and he _pop_ed out.

"Nice stick, Remus," Lily said to him after a few moments and turned to James, "So, what does your do?"

Boys stared at her before Remus snatched his wand back and James hid his. "It's not doing anything in your hands, Muggle Mug."

Remus patted his friend's shoulder, "Don't worry you'll have your own soon enough."

James snorted, "Don't forget to warn Mr. Olivander about your first _swish_."


	3. On the Hogwarts Express

A Short Author's Note

Thanks to EVERYONE who read and reviewed and just read and that sort of thing! This shall be the last 1st year chapter, and then we go on to 2nd! and then to 3rd! and then to gasps 4th, and oooo! I know! I know! 5th! 5th will be longer then others, probably 2 chappies for 5th! And then drum roll 6th! Here da plottie thinkens! The Werewolf incident happens! And someone becomes less of an idiot! Drama! Drama! DRAMA! And then comes (like someone brilliantly named it :D) the FLUFF of cue for emotional music SEVENTH YEAR! Aha! You knew it'd be here. :D I know you did! :D

You don't have to read my author notes, I just feel like writing them sometimes... makes me feel important you see!

Oh, and I keep renaming the fic... I know, bad habit! But this is the FINAL name! _Lily Evans and the Prison of Love_ , it just sounds, you know, JK Rowlishnish... :)

Chapter 3 . The Hogwarts Express

Mr. Evans was very determined to drop off his younger daughter on Hogwarts Express before eleven o'clock at King's Cross Station in London and then attend his older daughter's school's induction ceremony at one o'clock in Kings Lynn.

There was only one shortcoming in his genius plan, it takes two and a half hours to drive from London to Kings Lynn.

But that didn't kill anyone's spirits, especially not Lily's, who was going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There was an easy solution to Mr. Evan's dilemma, sending Lily to Platform nine and three quarters with the Lupins or the Potters, but that would mean that Mr. Evans wouldn't see his little girl go off into the new and mysterious magical world. And that would be a shame for the whole family. So the whole family came to London to send Lily off.

They arrived early at ten o'clock at King's Cross and Lily was pushing a trolley full of very odd objects, including a trunk, a cat cage, and a bag with cat food and toys, even a boxed cauldron. As Lily pushed her trolley forward, her mother examined her ticket.

"Honey, where exactly _is_ the platform nine and three quarters?" Mrs. Evans asked her husband.

Mr Evans answered in an offhand voice, "Between platforms nine and ten, of course, dear."

And that was when they arrived at the break between platforms nine and ten and there were no platforms between those. Mr. Evans frowned, first at the sign PLATFORM 9, then at the sign PLATFORM 10, then at Lily's ticket that said PLATFORM 9 3/4, and finally at the space between the signs PLATFORM 9 and PLATFORM 10 as if willing another sign to just appear. And muggles who noticed frowned at Mr. Evans while Mrs. Evans looked around for another sign.

"Why don't we walk along the platform and see if there're any other signs?" Lily suggested and Mr. Evans nodded

The Evanses walked up and down the platform twice before Petunia spoke in a very unpleasant tone, "Why don't you just walk into the stupid wall, may be it's the right way."

The idea seemed absurd until a young dark-haired boy walked out of a wall they were standing nest to. Lily and Petunia goggled at the wall and the boy walking down in toward the waiting area until Mrs. Evans gave them a nudge each toward the wall. "Come on, dears, he wasn't that good looking," she said with a small smile.

Lily suppressed a giggle, but Petunia muttered under her nose just barely audibly for Lily, "Who'd want to marry a _wizard_?"

Lily's family helped her load up her baggage, find her a compartment, and change into new robes. The whole time Mrs. Evans reminded her daughter what not to forget to do and to stay out of trouble. Mr. Evans just said to stay away from the boys and to write weekly letters to everyone. Petunia just said not to send her any "owls", but Lily didn't pay her any attention, she was probably just anxious not to miss her school ceremony.

"All right, sweetheart, I think that's everything and if we leave any later we'll be late to my flower's school ceremony. Oh, I'm so sad they don't allow parents at yours, I want to hear every detail!"

Lily smiled and nodded and hugged her mom, "I promise I will. Now, go or you'll make Petty late."

Mrs. Evans flicked away swelling tears from her eyes and kissed her daughter, "I love you, honey."

"I love you too, mom. I'll be perfectly fine and I'll write all the time," Lily said and squeezed her mom's hand.

After Lily walked with her family to the barrier, she finally had a chance to look around. Platform 9 3/4 had an antique touch to it, everything about it was a little faded and yellow, like an old photograph. Except for the Hogwarts Express and the signs, of course. The signs were bright and welcoming and the Express gave off friendly warm hoots every few minutes to no one in particular.

The Platform itself was next to empty, apparently no one arrived as early as ten o'clock under any normal circumstances. There were a few lonely students wandering around, but that didn't stop Lily from skipping and twirling down the platform to make an outlet for her excitement.

Until she collided with a tall dark brown haired boy. He was already wearing his Hogwarts robes and seemed to be in some pain as she stared at his face.

"Excuse me, miss," he said in a slightly breaking voice, "But could you move off my toe?"

"Oh! Definitely," Lily replied not really realizing what she replied to, but she didn't move anywhere.

The boy smiled slightly, "Right about now would be very nice indeed."

"Uh-huh," Lily blinked as if mesmerized, then shook her head as it started working properly again, "Where did you get that huge bruise?" She was referring to a very ugly blue and purple mark that had swallowed half of his face, most of the right side, one blue eye and the nose included.

"All right," the boy sighed a little sarcastically, taking Lily by her elbows and pushing her back a step. "Thank you, m'am, for moving off my poor injured foot and restoring the blood circulation to my humble cell tissues. As for my beauty mark," he paused and added in a very serious but slightly painful tone, "my mother beats me."

Lily gasped making the boy laugh, she threw him a fierce glare when she realized that he was just joking.

"A little naive, aren't you?" He asked with a smile that made Lily smile back, "It was just a misdirected Bludger."

"A Bludger?" Lily asked slowly.

"Oh, no! Not a muggleborn, are you?" The boy asked her in a mockingly weary tone while putting an arm around Lily's shoulders, "Well, I'll just have to educate you about Quidditch then! But first, the introductions! I am Alexander Yarich."

"Lily Evans."

"Pleased to meet you, Lily! That's short for Lillian, isn't it? I though so! You can call me Alexi though. Oh, we need to introduce you to Robin, splendid little gal she is! You'll get along wonderfully. Her parents are muggleborns, but she's so ignorant of your world. Plans to take muggle studies next year to learn about it, you know. Her parents didn't tell her anything, they're curse breakers. you see, the only worlds that interest them are uninhabited and full of awful sorts of trap spells and such..."

Lily found that Alexi knew quite a _lot_ about the magical world, his family was a long line of purebloods and most of them live in Russia. The Yariches were still common muggleborns when the International Code of Wizarding Secrecy was installed. Since then Yarick, a village deep in Siberia, had grown into a small town where everyone can eventually trace themselves to the Yarich family that first installed the village. Now, it is a hidden town where muggles and wizarding folk live together because of family ties.

"...You could actually call them all squibs, because - oh, squibs are non-magical children of magical parents - well, because more often then not the children that are born are muggleborns now. I believe living around all the magic is affecting everyone and eventually Yarick will be a completely magical town. You know how rare those are? British Isles have only one such village, Hogsmeade..."

There were also not so friendly purebloods, those that believed themselves superior to muggles and muggleborns and some such. They only married purebloods and more often then not purebloods with the same beliefs as themselves. Alexi's father came from such a family, Alexi refused to name it, but he did hint that his father abandoned his mother when she became heavy with child. But Alexi liked to believe there was a reason for everything bad in the world. He was really quite charming.

Robin Shensky joined Lily's and Alexi's compartment at ten fifty, Alexi had charmed the glass in the window to change in what he called Gryffindor colors, burgundy and yellow so she'd find them. And find them, Robin did, waltzing into their compartment and cramping it with two trunks and an owl cage plus some odd bags.

Alexi introduced them and the girls shook hands.

Lily stared at all the luggage, "How do you carry all that?"

Robin rolled her eyes, "I don't carry them, hun, I make them float on their own."

"Robin is a charming little girl," Alexi laughed at his own joke.

"So you're not a first year?" Lily asked.

Robin shook her head, "Oh, no, hun, definitely not. That year was a complete nightmare."

Alexi grinned, "Who said this one won't be?"

Robin threw him a glare, but it wasn't serious, "I do, because I actually got to all my classes _on_ time the last month of school."

"Oh, yes, that's right! You did! Well-" Alexi stopped when he saw Robin take out her wand, the girl pointed it at her bags and it all neatly arranged itself around the compartment. "Please don't turn me into anything unpleasant."

"I was just arranging my things," Robin smirked.

"Right," Alexi said, then half whispered to Lily, "Did I warn you about her awesome temper?"

"I heard that!"

But before the two friends could continue to fight each other, the compartment door opened and two boys Lily knew and a girl she didn't walked in.

"There you are!" Remus said and rushed toward her, Lily stood up and hugged her friend, when they've sat down again, Remus spoke, "We though you might have gotten lost!"

James was eyeing Alexi in a very unfriendly manner and Alexi was giving him one of his dashing smiles, Robin had curled up in her corner and began avoiding socializing with anyone. The girl came in the compartment and leaned against the door after closing it, "Remus insisted we find you, at least I think it's you, right, Lily?"

Lily nodded.

"Yeah, well, by the time we've ran though the train all the compartments got filled up! So, anyway, I'm Tress Knicht, and they're Remus Lupin and James Potter," the boys waved when called by name.

Alexi shook the boys' hands and kissed Tress' in a very gentlemanly manner, Tress just rolled her eyes at him. "Alexander Yarich, but Alexi will do."

"Lily Evans."

Everyone looked at Robin, who kept on scribbling something in her notebook.

Alexi smiled, "That's Robin "Hood" Shensky, but she doesn't socialize much, as you can see. But if you ever need to sharpen up your hexing skills, I'm definitely sure she'll whack you with a few you haven't yet learned."

Everyone started talking about Quidditch. Well, Lily just listened and sometimes asked some questions, which everyone at once started explaining. James got redder in the face every time Alexi started talking to Lily or Tress, both girls learned not to take seriously anything he said. And, of course, Robin never spoke except until...

"Your cousin's here, hun," she said and everyone stared at her.

And a knock sounded at the door, Tress opened it and let in a boy Lily thought looked familiar. The compartment went still, both Tress and Remus eyed the newcomer like a poisonous plant and James straight out refused to acknowledge his presence. But Alexi stood up and gave his apparently cousin a handshake and a manhug, "Well, you made it!"

"Yes, I did," the boy said coldly, "Now can you undo your window masquerade?"

"Of course not! I'm still waiting for Gill!" Alexi turned around to everyone and with a hand on his cousin's shoulder introduced him, "This is Sirius Black, my long lost brother you might say."

Sirius frowned to the introduction, "Don't let my mother hear that, remember the last family party? I've been forbidden to socialize with the likes of you."

Alexi blinked twice at the boy as tall as him and otherwise no other signs indicating the same blood, "Then what are you doing here? By Merlin's grace! You'll be thrown down the stairs again!"

Sirius snorted, "Is that what happened to you?"

"No, Robin finally managed to hit the bludger in the right direction."

Robin shook her head, "Ooor someone swung his bat the in the wrong direction."

Sirius tsked, "Alexi, hasn't anyone taught you not to help girls win? Especially when they can do that to you?"

With all the talk between Alexi and Sirius and Robin going on the tension began to slowly break, first relax was Tress, then James, but Remus kept on throwing Sirius untrusting glances. Alexi made Sirius sit by the window and sat himself between him and Lily, one arm around each. Next to Lily sat a very tense Remus. And Robin reluctantly made space for James, but only very little. Tress just kept on leaning on the door.

Some time after the clock turned it's longest hand to 12 and beat out eleven, the door opened again, making Tress have to grab Remus and James for support, and a eleven year old with short cut dark blonde hair walked in. Alexi repeated his ritual on standing up, hugging, introducing and sitting again. Gillian MacMada was a first year and not at all shy, she took over the conversation carrying it to the houses. Both Robin and Alexi were second year Gryffindors, wearing their badges on their robes proudly. James had no doubt he'd be in Gryffindor, Remus mentioned that it was only because he was not smart enough for Ravenclaw and too lazy for Hufflepuff. And everyone laughed. Sirius uttered a small prayer that Slytherin house will take sick leave from the list of available houses before he'd have to be sorted. Everyone laughed as well. And Remus seconded that for some reason. The two boys made eye contact there and their tension finally broke. Lily finally recognized Black as the name of one of the wrong kind of pureblood families and decided that Sirius was going for the Rebel label. Alexi nominated Sirius and Lily for future Griffindors and as much as Lily's heart tugged at being in the same house as Alexi and Robin, she did not want to leave Remus, her old friend, alone anywhere.

The discussion had shifted again, this time to summers. Remus, James and Lily related their most exciting event, the creation of Sedgeford Canyon.

"Muggle Mug? Could you get any more pathetic?" Alexi asked jokingly.

James folded his hands on his chest in a peacock like manner, "And you'd come up with a better one?"

"Yeah, just tell the girl a muggle is another name for a beautiful forest nymph and that she reminded you of such. So you wanted to know if she was one."

Lily giggled, "Aww, now I want to be a muggle again!"

James blushed a little, but not wanting to loose face, continued with the mock-argument, "You think you'd pull that off? You can be serious!"

Sirius grinned smuggly, "Well, now that you've asked, yeah, I already have. And I am - Sirius, Sirius Black! Pleased to meet you!"

Lily smiled, "Sirius like the star, Black like the night. How poetic."

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her, "I'm flattered, my muggle," he said imitating Alexi a little, "that you can find me so _inspiring_, my muggle nymph."

Alexi rolled his eyes, "You two, my lads, have much to learn yet!"

James wanted to say something, but Sirius beat him to it, "Aha, like we want to learn from the likes of you!"

Alexi's brows drew together in mock insult, "What's wrong with the likes of me? Lily likes my likes! Don't you, my lovely muggle?" He added a strange foreign accent to 'muggle' making it sound even more appealing.


End file.
